The claim that the perpetrator of the November 1st New York City terror attack was a “lone wolf” ignores the wider context of Islamic terrorism. It also oversimplifies and underestimates the threat of Islamic terror, helps terror-sponsoring states such as Iran, and derails counter-terrorism efforts.

The New York bicycle path terror attack was carried out by a member of the Islamic “pack of wolves,” who have been systematically brainwashed and molded by hate-education and incitement conducted by certain Islamic leaders and educators, social media, and radical imams — both in the US and abroad.

According to FBI testimony at a Senate Homeland Security Hearing: “Prison radicalization primarily occurs through anti-US sermons provided by contract, volunteer, or staff imams, radicalizing inmates who gain religious influence and extremist media … similar to that of Iran and Hezbollah. … These radicalization efforts expand beyond prison walls, resulting in potential threats to society at-large.”

Furthermore, Democratic Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) are concerned that the vetting of prison imams relies heavily on the Islamic Society of North America and the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences — which, according to Schumer, “are connected to terrorism and promote Wahhabism, which some consider to be an exclusionary and extreme form of Islam.”

Anti-US Islamic terrorists, such as the bicycle-path terrorist, have been adrenalized by three dramatic developments: the gradual Islamic penetration of Europe, which is losing its will to flex its muscles; the retreat-in-process of the US from Afghanistan and Iraq, and its recent accommodation of the Ayatollahs in Iran; and the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan, which was followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The NYC bicycle-path terror attack was consistent with the definition of terrorism — a systematic and deliberate targeting of civilians that aims to erode the confidence of Americans in their country’s homeland security, and makes them susceptible to the demands of radicalized Muslims.

In fact, Islamic terrorists have already broken through the gates of the US. Why? Because the US is rightly perceived by Islamic rogue regimes to be the most critical obstacle to their goal of dominating the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East at-large, Africa, Europe, South America and the rest of the globe.

The November 1st attack was carried out in an attempt to emulate a litany of prior acts of Islamic terrorism against Western democracies. It was carried out in the footsteps of the September 11, 2001, attacks; the November 28, 2016, Ohio State University attack by a Somali student/refugee; the June 12, 2016, Orlando nightclub massacre of 49 people; the December 2, 2015, San Bernardino massacre of 14 people by a Muslim couple; the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing by two Muslim brothers; and many more acts of terror perpetrated by members of the radical Islamic “packs of wolves.”

The New York bicycle-path attack was not an aberration, but an integral episode of 1,400 years of the intra-Islamic tectonic reality; the systematic use of terrorism against fellow-Muslims; the terror tactics employed by Muslim regimes against their own people; and so on.

This act of terrorism was intensely integrated with — not isolated from — a fundamental pillar of Islam — jihad, which commands Muslims to emulate previous struggles against the enemies of Islam, within the context of the eternal battle between the abode of Islam and the abode of the “infidel.”

In order to defeat Islamic terrorism, Western societies — led by the US — must rid counter-terrorism strategies of the “lone wolf” mentality, acknowledge the inherently non-compromising nature of Islamic terrorism and confront Islamic rogue regimes. We must also obliterate the terrorist infrastructure — of hate-education and incitement in the US and other Western democracies, as well as in Muslim countries. We must preempt, rather than react.

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